Jessica Kramer, Ph.D., OTR/L, an associate professor in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions department of occupational therapy, and colleagues were invited by principal investigator Joan B. Beasley, Ph.D., at the University of New Hampshire in response to a request to present one of seven pre-conference workshops at the 17th World Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, held August 5-8 in Chicago.
The team’s workshop focused on the Person Experiences Interview Survey for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Service Experiences, an assessment the team developed in collaboration with young adults with the lived experience of disability. It is the first survey of its kind to make it possible to learn directly from people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD, about their experiences with mental health services.
“The perspective of people with IDD is different from their family members’ or other perspectives,” Kramer said. “It is important that people with IDD have a way to give input about their experiences with mental health services.”
The team included Joan B. Beasley, Micah Peace Urquilla and Andrea Caoili of the University of New Hampshire, Luke Kalb of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Tawara D. Goode of Georgetown University. The work is funded by a grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
Kramer is the lead author on a recent article in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry that describes the development of the Person Experiences Interview Survey and an examination of its content validity with input from people with IDD, family caregivers and mental health providers. The Person Experiences Interview Survey is available through the University of New Hampshire.